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Robots to sweep the streets

National News | 2009-05-23

High tech municipality workers.
Photo: dustbot.org
Be prepared for a robot invasion this summer in the city of Örebro, 160 kilometers west of Stockholm. They will sweep, vacuum-clean and measure pollution on the streets. You even can call them or send an SMS and they will come to you and pick up your trash.

“They will arrive in central Örebro July 25th and will stay for a couple of days”, says Håkan Zaring, manager for maintenance of parks and streets in Örebro municipality, to news agency TT.

The two robots, or dustbots as they are called, shall sweep and vacuum-clean the two main pedestrian streets. They have earlier been tried in South Korea, Italy and Japan, but will make their Swedish premier in Örebro.

The street sweeping is a part of a research project carried out at Örebro University together with several foreign universities.

The high tech municipal workers who will slave this summer are also able to measure different kind pollution and can warn if the levels are too high. They also have the city map programmed into their system and communicates via a wireless network connected to both GPS and internet.

Most likely will the SMS-control be most popular. When someone sends an SMS or calls the central in the wireless network is the caller’s position calculated and the dustbot is sent there.

“The robot arrives and pick up your trash. You use the robots display board to enter what sort of trash it is and then the robot carries it to a dust bin”, says Matteo Reggente, one of the scientists behind this project.

David Jonasson
david.jonasson@stockholmnews.com
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